Cultural Projects Benefit the People of Tailai County

In the summer of 1998 a flood, the largest in a century, swept across regions along the Nenjiang River, including Tailai County. More than 10,000 local residents were evacuated. To accommodate the homeless, a temporary settlement named Hongsheng New Village (meaning reborn in the flood) was set up on a highland four kilometers from Daxing Town. The site was later transformed into a museum and plaza in honor of the tenacity and resilience of the local people in combating and recovering from the massive natural disaster.

The museum enshrining the country’s courageous efforts to overcome the disastrous floods of 1998.

Taihu seats a national wetland park. Over the past years, Tailai County has built a full infrastructure including highways, a public square, a lotus pool and an aquatic recreational park in the area, allowing tourists easy access and enriching their experiences there. The green space has also been extended and urban planning executed in a discreet and sensible manner to ensure commercial development compatible with eco-environmental preservation.

Mass Participation

The People’s Cultural Palace.

A group of elders perform a folk opera while in another room children rehearse a dance. Despite the chill of the winter day outside, scenes inside the People’s Cultural Palace of Tailai County are ebullient.

“It is great to get together with people of my age. Dancing can dispel all fatigue from a day’s work,” said Ms. Zhao who is a member of the county’s Golden Age Troupe for senior amateur artists. Before joining the troupe in 2012, her life as a retiree consisted of nothing more than cleaning, cooking and watching TV. “Now my teammates and I dance together and chat, sharing our thoughts and joys.” The troupe has grown from 20 members to 300-plus and meets regularly, even in the bone-biting cold of winter in Northeast China.

According to Tailai magistrate Li Yansong, there are more cultural facilities for public activities in the county, a result of increasing financial and policy incentives for cultural undertakings. They include nine urban plazas that total 200,000 square meters and a cultural and sports center that includes a stadium, a theater, a library and an exhibition space.